15 Most Iconic Board Games of All Time

For thousands of years, board games have brought families together and have been a source of entertainment for people of all ages. Even in today’s digitized world, iconic board games like Monopoly and Chess have survived the test of time and can still be found in cupboards across the world.

As game consoles such as XBOX and Playstation continue to infiltrate traditional entertainment, companies are still finding innovative ways to reinvent the past time we all know and love. One of the pioneers of modern board games is Goliath Games. You may recognize their name as the creators of some of today’s most popular and exciting skill and action tabletop games for kids, such as Pop the Pig, Doggie Doo and Domino Rally, which can be found in almost all major retailers.

Help Goliath Games on their quest of perpetuating creativity, thinking and social interaction by coming up with an idea for a new action tabletop game. Who knows, your idea could be selected and inventors of every idea selected will receive 50/50 royalties. Learn more and submit your idea.

To help get your wheels turning, take trip down memory lane with 15 of the most iconic board games of all time:

1. Scrabble

The game where you show your friends who’s B-O-S-S.

2. Battleship

Did you know Battleship originated as a pencil and pen game dating back to World War I?

3. Risk

The game of world domination.

4. Monopoly

Monopoly AKA the never ending game capable of destroying even the strongest of relationships.

5. Boggle

Fun Fact: Using the sixteen cubes in a standard Boggle set, the list of longest words that can be formed includes inconsequentially, quadricentennials, and sesquicentennials.

6. Checkers

The origins of Checkers is unknown, but some have speculated it dates back to the 12th century in France.

7. Hungry Hungry Hippos

Who remembers the commercials of those brightly colored cartoon hippos dancing in a conga line?

8. Backgammon

In State of Oregon v Barr, a 1982 court case, the State argued backgammon is a game of chance and that it was therefore subject to Oregon’s stringent gambling laws.

9. Yahtzee

According to current owner Hasbro, 50 million Yahtzee games are sold each year.

10. Sorry!

Sorry! was officially registered as a trademark on May 21, 1929 in England.

11. Stratego

Tactics, strategy and cold hard bluff.

12. Operation

Operation was invented in 1964 by John Spinello, a college industrial design student who sold his rights to the game to Milton Bradley for just $500.

13. Snakes and Ladders

The ancient Indian game had root in morality lessons, where a player’s progression up the board represented a life journey complicated by virtues (ladders) and vices (snakes).

14. Candyland

The magical road to sweet (and not so sweet) surprises!

15. Guess Who

Note: “Game cards do not actually talk.”

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